Review Blog

May 15 2017

Dorling Kindersley, 2017. ISBN 9781465459626
(Age: 8+) Highly recommended. Encyclopedia, Star Wars, Film history,
Technology. The most amazing compendium of all things about Star
Wars is presented in this large format, heavy tome. What a
coverage: from set design to costume, machinery to ammunition, space
ships to galaxies, characters to flora and fauna, here is a
wonderful contribution to the plethora of books now written about
Star Wars, giving a bird's eye view of all the thought, design and
making that went into the preparation of the worlds created for that
series of films. Watching any of the films makes the audience gape
in wonderment at the array of things shown, but reading this book
underscores the brilliance of the creators, the range of ideas
developed, the level of sophistication of all the people who worked
on it. I couldn't put it down.
Divided into five sections: Geography, Nature, History Culture and
Science and technology, all aspects of the film are covered, with
the last taking up almost half of the book. The first section,
Geography, shows all the planets, both inner and outer that make up
the galaxy, as well as other celestial bodies traveling in space.
Specific detail is given about the mountains, rivers and make up
some of the planets, leading into urban geography and architecture.
Nature describes and shows some of the creatures which make up this
galaxy, leading from the most grotesque of animals to the human and
not quite human. History fills us in with the war between the powers
in the galaxy, with a timeline of events to make sure we know what
happened and when, in relation to other events. This section
includes all the protagonists, and there are many of these. Culture
shows us the design of the clothing, and leads onto food an art.
But the last section, Science and Technology, is huge. Droids,
security and medical droids, communications technology, equipment
and field gear, are described in detail, until the munitions pages
are reached. Here every reader will revel in the illustrations and
descriptions of the rifles, blasters, projectiles and shields, light
sabers, and starfighters. I loved the range of things explained and
illustrated and will look at the Star Wars films with a new
appreciation of the depth of design that went into these now classic
sci fi films.
Fran Knight